Challenging the “dominant culture” in education

Thanks to Mike Rosen for telling us how Denver Public Schools had planned to evaluate teachers involved with diverse community cultures: did the teachers encourage the students to become “social activists, work for social change and challenge the dominant culture?” I’m so glad Rosen and others challenged the dominant culture in education and at DPS, so clearly revealed by its parroting of leftist buzzwords.

Here is the problem with social programs in public school, it is done at the expense of the basics. What good is it to develop critical thinking if a child can’t form a proper sentence on paper or on a word document. And even if they have spell check, what if the choice given is assumed to be correct. And why have most public schools abandoned phonics? .My five year old granddaughter can read basic words as she sounds them out. We took a walk recently and I asked her to read Cedars. She started out sounding the C as it would be used in Cat. I told her to use the soft sound and she got it right away. Can whole word kids do that? Probably not at five years of age.

And what about math. 5 plus 5 is always 10. If memorizing the basics of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing aren’t being taught, you handicap a child’s ability to do harder math.

Critical thinking is a fine objective, once the basics have been mastered. Until then, stick to the basics and critical thinking will be easier to accomplish.

Guest22

The problem,Thor, is that the schools don’t teach critical thinking; they teach test thinking. As you mention, schools barely teach the basics and if they do, they only teach towards one type of learner, sequential, rather than kinesthetic or visual-spatial. Most of the basics can be taught by parents, grandparents, etc. in daily life.

Tom Boasberg, with his quote about making kids critical thinkers, is just trying to make DPS look more progressive than it actually is. I agree with the letter writer: teachers and administrators should learn how to think critically instead of being automatons for a school system that is going to turn this country’s kids into ignorant, subservient adults with no clue about the basics of life. Stop with the lovey-dovey veneer of progressive intellectualism and start truly educating our kids!

Anonymous

He said what I want to hear, that does not in any way shape or form mean that DPS intends to produce critical thinkers.

George Carlin, and John Taylor Gatto had it right.

irisman

It’s a well known fact that I sometimes side with the liberals, but basic skills should have the first priority in grade school. Grade school kids haven’t reached the stage of cognitive development to exercise critical thinking in a meaningful way.** By the time they’re in high school they should be ready for some exercises in critical thinking. Critical thinking is a basic survival skill because it teaches people not to believe everything they hear from commercials and politicians, and not to get robbed by con men.
** for this reason, I’m also opposed to children being subjected to intensive religious indoctrination at an early age.

Anonymous

I tend to agree with your over all point. Where religion is concerned, particularly Christianity, if people were actually properly educated about it the so called fundamentalists would not have a leg to stand on. Sadly though it is no longer a process of catechisis rather it is indoctrination based on a faulty understanding and interpretation of Holy Scripture.

Anonymous

I think some people like certain religious denominations, because those denominations don’t require them to think. Those religions give them concrete answers and make life easy.
Unfortunately, real life doesn’t work that way. Real life presents us with ambiguities. Real religion acknowledges those ambiguities, and equips their followers to resolve them for themselves — and acknowledges some ambiguities will always be ambiguous.

Anonymous

Elementary school children? Sure, make sure they know the basics.
High school graduates? You better believe I hope they know critical thinking skills!
If you’re a late teen or a young adult, I hope you challenge the dominant culture. I hope you challenge norms, ask for answers, and not just accept “Well, we’ve always done it this way!”

thor

You know, you are right. The dominant culture says marriage between two people of the same sex is okay, that WE should pay the $10.00 for someones contraceptives, that taking a life in the womb is acceptable. I do hope teenagers question this in their schools, just like we did in the late 60’s with the war in Veit Nam. I even walked out of school in protest because the didn’t serve tacos in our lunchroom. I didn’t accept “We’ve always done it this way.”

Anonymous

God forbid (right?) two men or two women should marry, should settle down, should form a lifelong partnership with each other for mutual care and support. We can’t have THAT, no siree!
The dominant culture thought GLBT people were yucky.
The dominant culture made contraception for women taboo.
But people challenged that.
Now, other people are challenging the challengers.
Fine.
I think it’s great you walked out of school.
By the time they graduate, I want kids who think. I want kids who ask “why?”

Anonymous

I’d be happy if they all could read.

thor

Just one thought. Jews are subjected to intensive religious indoctrination and they tend to vote Democrat.

Anonymous

Try telling that to my aunt, my cousins, my brother-in-law.
How dare you presume to know how Jews are going to vote?

thor

I’m not presuming anything, and you know it. As well informed as you are, you definitely know that most Jews vote for Democrats. I don’t really understand it, but instead of being offended, why don’t you explain it to me and help my understanding. Also, I think you know what my point was, so get over yourself.

Anonymous

I have no clue what your point was.

thor

Did you not read what irisman wrote? he wrote “** for this reason, I’m also opposed to children being subjected to intensive religious indoctrination at an early age.” That prompted me to write what I did. Do you now follow? Maybe your Jewish friends are not orthodox?

Anonymous

How do you know that it’s the “intensive religious indoctrination” that Jews may or may not receive that makes them predominantly Democratic?
How do you know Jews intensively indoctrinate?
Do you understand that there are 3 main divisions or denominations among Jews, and a few smaller ones as well?That Conservative Jewish education or Orthodox Jewish education may have different emphases than Reform Jewish education?
I bet Mennonite, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, or Assemblies of God congregations place different emphases in their education, even though they are all Christian.
Besides, if you believe that religions ought to teach their believers, but not force them to believe, then you mean “educate” or “instruct”, not “indoctrinate”.
I know you were replying to irisman’s post, but I think he was using wording that reflected a particular point of view.

thor

Bingo. Now you got it. He was reflecting a particular point of view. I was pointing out that some groups, in this case Jews, indoctrinate their children. The point was that sometimes children vote Democrat that have been indoctrinated. But, not all indoctrination,i.e. teaching, is bad unless it is forced. I also know that the indoctrination has nothing to do with why Jews vote Democrat. That is a real mystery because most Jews are conservative in nature, just like most Latinos. But maybe they will see the error in their ways when they consider how little regard President Obama has for the nation of Israel.

Anonymous

Being Jewish does not mean automatically mean blind support of Israel. Certain organizations would like Jews to behave that way. Some, but not all, Jews express their Jewishness that way. But the two are not synonymous.
In fact, given the overall level of debate about Israel and the Middle East in this country, Jews in Israel are much more opinionated in their views of how Israel should conduct itself than Jews in this country would dream of being.
Why should it be a mystery, why should it matter to you, why Jews generally vote Democratic? You’re making assumptions.
That’s fine. You’re conservative and like the Republican Party.
But, please don’t assume that everyone who has a moral point of view should automatically vote Republican.
Don’t assume how Jews and Latinos “should” vote, and I won’t assume how Christians or whites “should” vote.

thor

I’m not “assuming” anything, I’m wondering. But you made an odd statement at the end that needs addressing. Since more whites voted for Obama in ’08, why would you include that group along with Jews and Latinos. And being conservative has no correlation with being moral. I said Jews and Latinos tend to have conservative values. Aren’t liberals also moral. you do have a funny way of offending groups.

Anonymous

You said most Jews are conservative by nature, along with most Latinos.
It wasn’t to hard a stretch to assume moral = conservative in your statement.

thor

Over 1/2 of our country is conservative by nature. What i don’t understand is how you made the leap that conservative = moral. At least you admit that you are the one to make an assumption. Conservative is not just a political term. People who are conservative tend to center their lives around family, yes, but they can also be fiscal conservatives because they believe that the government should spend less and give money away less and tax less. As a Bot scout, I learned to conserve the world around me. In my opinion, being conservative is more natural than being liberal. Now, being Christian is another story. Some align with the Democrats, one of my daughters, and some align with Republicans, like me. Some try to blend religion and politics, like the red-word Christians who believe that we should follow the red words of Jesus concerning social issues. They tend to be liberal Democrats. I hope that helps your understanding.

Anonymous

Presuming that all Jews believe and think alike is as nonsensical as presuming that all Christians believe and think alike. Well said Peter.

Anonymous

Thank you.
Too bad others can’t seem to see that.

Anonymous

I don’t know of any rabbi who has informed their congregation that, if they vote the wrong way, they could be shunned by their congregation.
I don’t know of any rabbi who has informed their congregation that, if they follow Jewish teachings correctly, that their informed conscience will automatically lead them to vote a particular way.

thor

I’m sure your right about that as well. But don’t deny the FACT that most Jews vote Democrat. What you should really be offended by is the idea that a religion can’t indoctrinate their children in their beliefs. The real problem is in the religious extremists who don’t just indoctrinate, but take free choice out of the mix. Jews, Catholics the mainline Christian believers and Evangelicals all have free choice as part of their doctrine, and you know that as well. The God of the Bible never asks for forced allegiance, but for acceptance of Him because of who He is.

Anonymous

No one is talking about teaching 5 year old critical thinking.
But I’d like to think that high school graduates should be able to think critically.
And, yes, I want people to challenge social norms, question the dominant culture, and not be automatons.

Anonymous

Five year olds naturally think creatively and critically.

Schools carefully destroy those skills while rewarding obedience and conformity.

Anonymous

And I thought the goal was for students to memorize multiplication tables, conjugate verbs correctly and distinguish which were the best of times and which were the worst.

After that, they’ll have the tools to criticize someone’s thinking.

Anonymous

Rote learning doesn’t equip them for anything. … or is that your point?

Anonymous

Oh, I don’t know. Isn’t that how we were educated back in olden times? I don’t remember Sister Mary Helen engaging the class in a critical debate of Johnson’s foreign policy; I do remember learning who attacked who and when, then what the impacts were — and being tested on those principles. I also remember learning that two and two are always four, and that the rules of grammar are consistent and that while it’s fun to talk wrong for laughs, it’s still not correct English.

I’d say I was fairly well equipped for college and real world.

Anonymous

Maybe it’s because I never had Sister Mary Helen as a teacher, but:
I had an 8th grade American Civics teacher in the fall of 1968 tell us that if any of us volunteered for any political campaign for any elected office or ballot issue, she would give us extra credit, all the while teaching us about the US Constitution, three branches of government, checks and balances, differences between representative democracies and parliamentary democracies, differences between capitalist, socialist, fascist, and communist economic systems, etc.
I had a 10th grade American History teacher who, in the spring of 1970, decided that the Kent State shootings were history right in front of our eyes, and opened the classroom to open debate and discussion for one class period.
Somehow, despite all this, I also learned English composition, geometry, geology, algebra, physics, etc.

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